By Ranpolph Heaster, The Kansas City Star, June 23, 2003
Last week, Glenn, other home-care providers and advocates for the disabled gathered in front of Bartow’s house to discuss a union’s organizing efforts and the formation of a new Kansas coalition to improve services for people with disabilities.
SEIU Healthcare Kansas, part of the health-care division of the Service Employees International Union, has gotten more than 100 home-care providers in the state to sign cards seeking to join the union. Many home health-care workers work independently and can become isolated, so the prospect of organizing could be beneficial, according to Glenn.
“It’s a very stressful job,” he said. “The number one thing that’s appealing about joining the union is it’ll give us the ability to speak with other providers in similar situations and find out how they are dealing with the problems we all face.”
One of the problems is the cutback in services for the disabled by the state of Kansas. For instance, one of Bartow’s sons had home-care reimbursement benefits taken away because he recently turned 21.
Raylene Noreen of Lenexa receives 100 hours of reimbursement funds monthly to care for her mentally disabled 45-year-old daughter, Rhonda. Although this does not nearly cover the actual amount of time it takes to care for her daughter, Noreen said she hopes the SEIU can help create greater awareness of the problems faced by the disabled.
“We’ve got to start worrying about what happens to our kids in case something should happen to us,” she said. “If you don’t live with a disabled person or are disabled yourself, you don’t think about them. I hope his group can create some public awareness for them.”
There are an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 home-care providers in Kansas, according to the union. They can be relatives of the disabled who live at home, independent providers or employees of an agency.
While benefits are being reduced for the disabled, the home-care workers are also seeking benefits of their own, which could help reduce turnover rates in the industry. The union and advocates for the disabled have formed Kansas Family Care Providers for Action to try to get state-sponsored medical benefits and transportation reimbursement for home-care providers.
Walter Dickey, a retired lawyer, said such legislation was introduced in the Kansas Legislature in the last session and passed unanimously in the Senate. However, it was never considered in the House after the issue of coal-fired plants in western Kansas took up the remainder of the legislature’s session, he said.
Dickey, who has a developmentally disabled teenage son, said he would work to lobby legislators again in the next session to get the bill passed. Such benefits for home health-care workers could lower turnover rates and create greater continuity in the care provided, he said. He said many families feared putting their relatives in a group home, which could become a dangerous environment for the mentally disabled.
“Disabled people can’t speak for themselves, so that’s why we’re here,” he said.
SEIU Healthcare was formed last year, bringing together 1 million health-care workers in separate locals nationwide into an umbrella organization.
To reach Randolph Heaster, call 816-234-4746 or send e-mail to rheaster@kcstar.com.